


Star of Wonder

by CleverSnail



Category: The LEGO Movie (2014)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 02:12:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2834393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CleverSnail/pseuds/CleverSnail
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Benny reunites with his ship Vega.<br/>B and Neil prepare for a Christmas without him.</p><p> </p><p>~~A multi-part Christmassy GrittyFluff inspired by a recent trip to Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch of the Orion spacecraft (my original inspiration for Vega in Space Between Us)~~</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Dis one is for Burt.

They try to make it a proper holiday, for the boy’s sake.

The weather’s less than cooperative, muggy and hot as a summer swamp one day and then rainy and chilly the next. Every afternoon the skies open in a downpour. It’s hard to reconcile the Christmas lights with the steam rising from the tops of sun-warmed palm trees. But there’s every reason to celebrate. It’s the second week in December and the space agency’s brand new launch facilities to the south are operational at long last.

It’s a sight to see, even for a jaded space veteran like Benny. The gantries above the launch pads sparkle in the sunlight, and the Visitors’ Center gleams like a fresh penny. Even deep within the private crew and control areas of the complex the luxury continues unabated. The astronauts’ quarters are slicker than any hotel Benny’s ever seen. Mission Control looks like a set from a science fiction film, all flashing touch screens and fancy modernist Scandinavian furniture. Nothing like the ancient MI back home at the Space Center outside of Bricksburg, desktops discolored with the scorches of ten thousand cigarettes, fossilized gobs of gum cobblestoning the undersides of every surface.

Hour by hour, visitors from across the world pour in to the new Center. There’s the music of hundreds of languages in the gathering crowd. Television crews slowly set up their cameras beside the bleachers at the launch viewing areas, shroud them in plastic against the inevitable rain. The AP and Reuters have sent armies of reporters. They strut round the Center like kings, flashing their laminated press passes. Excitement and anticipation are thick in the air.

 _Vega_ is headed back into space at last.

And Benny with her.

Quarantine begins in five days. Benny ticks the hours off obsessively, runs a countdown in his head. B doesn’t mention it, but Benny knows he’s doing it too. He watches B’s eyes flick down to the clock on his phone five, six times an hour. Time trickles away like water, unrelenting, unstoppable. This should get easier, but it never does.

They’re holed up in a cheap hotel to the west of the Space Center, all three of them: Benny, B, Neil. It’s a tight squeeze in the small room with a busy young boy, so they spend little time there. From the hotel it’s a quick walk down the street to the ocean where they can look out across the cape towards the Center’s looming Vehicle Assembly Building and beyond, to the three launch pads. One is occupied.

If Benny squints, he can see _Vega_ already perched atop the bright orange boosters of the Delta IV Heavy. She’s configured now for a low earth orbit flight to the space station, though he engineered her for deep space travel as well. Someday she’ll take a crew to Mars. She’s beautiful in the hazy sunlight, white as a dove. She’d been his life, and nearly his death. She’s the culmination of all of his skills as an engineer, a mechanic, a pilot, an astronaut. He loves her fiercely. Once he would have even called her his greatest work, his _magnum opus_.

Once.

Before there was Neil.


	2. Chapter 2

Neil is up with the sun every day, pleading for the beach. It’s hardly beach weather, but he’s insistent. Benny and B know he’s working them over like a pro, but it’s hard to see tears in those huge blue eyes. He’ll have his fill of tears in the weeks to come. And so they relent and take him down the street to the sea each morning, watch him run on the cool sand, watch him skirt the waves with chilled toes. They hose him off in the shower later and let him tear through the hotel room naked as an egg, screaming for joy, while Benny turns and weeps quietly into the bath towel.

Far off at the Space Center, the countdown clock has begun.

They do ridiculously plain things together. They hit Denny’s for breakfast daily after Neil is de-sanded and de-salted and dressed once again. Neil politely orders the most revoltingly sweet item he can find on the menu and then asks for extra syrup. B orders black coffee and pancakes and a wet rag to scrub the stickiness from his child. Benny orders a Grand Slam, with a wink towards B and a fresh toe tracing the line of B’s calf under the table. Inevitably, B reddens. Deeply.

They do outrageously touristy things together. They plan a day at a huge theme park mid-state, putting the Space Center well into their rear view mirror for twelve candy-coated hours. Neil’s in his element there, charging full-throttle through the crowd in blue flightsuit and lavender princess hat. He wants to ride all of the roller coasters. All of the roller coasters! B and Benny pop Dramamine tablets and dutifully take turns as fearless Neil’s escort. After the worst of the rides, B smokes shakily behind sparkle-coated trees while Benny stress-eats churros and worries about the fit of his A.C.E.S. suit in a week. Undaunted and unflappable, Neil marches on ahead through the park, resplendent in his lace and velcro, a character balloon double-knotted to his chubby wrist. 

They get back to the hotel late, carry the exhausted boy inside. He’s out before he hits the bed, covered in stuffed animals and other detritus from the day. When they’re sure Neil’s asleep, Benny and B slip silently into the shower and into each other’s arms. A few stolen moments. That’s all they need. Sweat and soap and steam mix in measure as Benny presses B gently against the shower wall, skin to skin, his sunburnt lips sliding softly, slowly down the proud curve of B’s warm wet spine.

They try to convince themselves the week will never end.

But the countdown clock has begun.


	3. Chapter 3

The day before Benny’s quarantine begins, they decide to take Neil to the Visitors’ Center at the new Space Center complex.

Neil hardly sleeps the night before, comes crawling into B’s and Benny’s bed at 2am and never leaves. He reads a stack of picture books loudly by flashlight until dawn greys the spaces between the heavy hotel curtains. They’re all bleary-eyed and dazed when they finally haul themselves out of bed. B shotguns two black coffees in the time it takes Benny to shave and then hastily dresses Neil. When B heads into the shower, Benny undresses Neil and puts all his-back-to-front clothes on properly. Neil laughs hysterically.

They pile into the car and head east towards the cape.

As they drive the smooth new boulevard to the Space Center, Neil shouts out the names of the side streets they pass. Grissom Parkway! Chaffee Place! White Avenue! After a mile, Benny catches on. The names are memorials. Street after street named for dead astronauts. The silence in the front seat is almost suffocating. B’s lips are pressed together tight enough to whiten them. He stares straight ahead, unblinking. Benny has to crack the window. He needs air.

The parking lot at the Space Center is immense, and even at opening it’s nearly full. They park the rental car under a light post with a picture of John Glenn attached to it as a finding aid. Neil is charged with the task of remembering this. He accepts his role with great gravitas, repeating “John Glenn, John Glenn, John Glenn” in time with their footfalls as they make their way across the lot to the Center.

Rockets of all shapes as sizes loom from behind the entrance gates. Neil quickly forgets his parking lot mantra and begins pointing out rockets to B as if he were introducing old friends. “Dada! Look! There’s a Mercury-Redstone! Ohhh she’s so pretty and so tall! Lookit! Oh wow! A Mercury-Atlas! And that’s a Gemini-Titan II, Dada, see? That one there! And behind them…that looks like…a Saturn IB? Maybe! Oh my gosh Dada, see the Atlas-Agena?” B hefts his wriggling boy onto his shoulders to give him a better look, takes a sneaker to the ribs and an elbow to the cheek in Neil’s excitement.

Benny returns from admissions with two multi-day passes on lanyards. Neil flings his on like the medal of a conquering hero and then gently helps B hang his own around his neck. He gives B’s head a hug from his perch on B’s shoulders and whispers, “This means we’re astronauts today, too, Dada.”

First stop on campus is a space-themed breakfast cafe where Neil, true to form, devours an astounding amount of food. When the last sip of milk disappears, Benny and B set him free in the rocket garden. They take their coffees to a nearby bench and watch him play. He’s tiny and fast, a red-headed blur racing around the huge rockets, clambering in and out of mockups of Mercury and Gemini and Apollo capsules. He’s triumphant, joyful in the morning sun. The thought of leaving him makes Benny’s heart ache palpably. Six months might as well be a lifetime.

Benny presses in against B’s side on the bench. B is warm, and he smells perennially of tobacco and cinnamon chewing gum. He smells like home. The pain in Benny’s chest grows. It’s the absence of these little familiar things that wear on an astronaut in space, these tiny missing comforts. The minutiae that make earth so indescribably precious when it’s 200 miles below, just out of reach. Benny buries his nose in B’s shoulder. He wishes he could hold back time.

But he’s got to fly.


	4. Chapter 4

The anonymity of the morning is short-lived. Though Benny’s made sure to dress down for the day, his looks still give him away. The strawberry blond hair. The ubiquitous blue Converse sneakers. That famous smile. All of the _Vega 1_ crew are as recognizable as movie stars, but especially their Flight Engineer. As Benny, B, and Neil make their way through the Visitors’ Center, they’re approached by a constant stream of admirers. All want a handshake, a hug, a photo, an autograph from Benny. He obliges for a while, but the crowds keep coming. It’s only after he threads his arm casually through B’s that he’s finally given a respectful berth.

The press of people unnerves B. Benny can read it in his body. And when Neil, his tiny hand caught tight in the grip of B’s crooked fingers whines “Dada, you’re hurtinnngggg…” Benny makes the executive decision to change their trajectory. They duck inside the on-site IMAX theater and shuffle into the very back row of chairs. B can see the entire theater from there, can keep an eye on everyone who enters or exits. Benny feels him relax minutely in his seat. Neil snuggles in tight to Benny’s right side, mugging in his 3D glasses to coax a laugh from B. It works.

“That’s a good look for you, Little Blue,” B snorts. There’s a smile in his voice.

The films starts and Neil quiets. He’s lost immediately in the story of the Hubble Telescope and its breathtaking images of space, his blue eyes wide, reflecting galaxies.

Benny stretches out his legs, settles deep into his theater seat between the two creatures he loves more than anything in this world or any other. On earth, he dreams of space nightly, in vivid swirling colors, but it’s these boys who’ll occupy his mind in sleep as he spins in controlled freefall above the planet. He’ll pack their photograph against his heart in his flightsuit. He’ll count the hours til he has his turn on the IP phone. And he’ll do his very best work for their sake, to put space within the reach of his son’s children’s children.

He’s glad the darkness hides his welling eyes.

After the film, they tour the new space shuttle exhibit and ride the launch simulation. Benny’s amazed at how realistic the space agency made it. He steals a glance at Neil as they endure the violence of the launch’s first stage, the shaking and simulated G-forces enough to rattle every bone. Neil’s eyes are screwed shut and his grin is impossibly wide. He’s the face of pure joy. Benny’s heart could burst, watching his little son.

B doesn’t fare so well. He retreats outside for a cigarette as soon as they’re sprung from the ride. Benny sits quietly with him on a bench as Neil races through the rocket garden again. B’s ashen, his expression unreadable. Benny knows this look. B’s overwhelmed and retreating. Botting out. Benny presses his hand into B’s. For a moment, there’s no reaction. And then, slowly, B’s weathered fingers curl around Benny’s. It’ll be alright.

The day is nearly done. One more stop to make. Benny leads Neil through an exhibit on the early space program and points out all his childhood heroes to his little boy: Armstrong, Grissom, Glenn, Collins, Cernan. Neil listens respectfully, asks smart questions. After Benny sets him free to wander, Neil strides right up to a Mercury capsule and gives it a solemn hug. “You did such a good job,” he tells it quietly. “I’m proud of you.”

Benny finds B a few galleries behind them, carefully reading every exhibit label with hands clasped neatly behind his back. Early in his relationship with Benny, B discovered he enjoyed museums. His intellectual curiosity had been actively suppressed under Lord Business, and he’d existed in an information vacuum for nearly a decade. Museums, when Benny began bringing him to them, were a revelation. Here were morsels of knowledge, easily digested, and big bright visuals. B drank them in like a man dying of thirst, let his mind come alive again.

Benny watches from his periphery as Neil seeks B out and tracks him down him in front of a panel on Alan Shepard. He stands silently to his father’s left, clasps his hands behind his back, too. It’s a perfect tableau. Benny fumbles with his phone, takes a million shaky pictures in the dim light as B reaches down to tousle Neil’s bright red curls, gently, gently.

“Dada,” whispers Neil, with great reverence, “there is so much space to learn here today.”

Benny has to turn away. He’s missing them already.


	5. Chapter 5

B and Neil take Benny to the Space Center early the next morning for his pre-launch quarantine. They linger together in front of the astronauts’ quarters. Benny and B make small talk, brush fingertips.

Neil’s wearing his tiny blue flight suit, the one Grammy made with his name embroidered above his heart: N. B. Blue. He’s unusually quiet, won’t let go of Benny’s hand. He looks small and fragile, nothing like the laughing, running boy who played in the rocket garden the day before. Benny is worried.

Red spots them from across the small quadrangle and saunters over, navy duffel bag in hand. He’s commander again for this _Vega_ mission and he absolutely looks the part, tall and heroic. The Dave Scott to Benny’s Neil Armstrong. His hair is freshly shorn, his uniform crisply pressed. The shine on his shoes is mirror-like.

“Mornin’ Chief, mornin’ Blue,” he nods, shakes hands with them both, and then squats down to Neil’s height. His smile is wide. “Mornin’ Neil.”

“Mornin’ Commander Red,” Neil mumbles at his toes. He doesn’t lift his eyes.

Red glances back up at Benny and B. “Uh oh.”

“Yeah.” Benny smooths red curls away from Neil’s forehead with his free hand. “It’s gonna be hard for everyone this time around. With Christmas and all.”

“I hear ya there.” Red unzips his duffel bag and fumbles around inside it. “Hey, I have something for you, Neil,” he says, “but I hope you’re not too sad to enjoy it.”

Neil perks up a hair. It’s like magic. “I’m not too sad,” he assures Red, trying to peer over Red’s shoulder and into the bag. “What is it?”

Beside Benny, B laughs. “Neil, for goodness’ sake.”

“He’s alright, Chief. Aha! Here it is.” Red whisks something out of the depths of the duffel and hides it quickly behind his back. He winks at Neil. “Now, I saw this at the store last week and I thought of you right away. Try and guess why.” Red holds out the gift with a flourish.

“Ohhhh,” breathes Neil, as Red presses a huge candy cane into his little hands. “Wow! Lookit this big candy cane! It’s blue! That’s why you thought of me! Because it’s blue!”

“Exactly right. Good thinkin.’” Red stands, musses Neil’s hair. He beams at Benny and B.

Benny swipes a hand across his forehead wearily. “Oh my God, Red. We’ll never get him unsticky.”

“That,” mugs Red, “is now the Chief’s problem, not yours, Blue.”

“Yeah. Thanks a million for that.” B watches with resignation as Neil tears the wrapper off the huge stick of candy and shoves it unceremoniously into his mouth. His lips and teeth immediately turn blue. B groans. Neil gives his father a wide azure grin.

“What do you say, Neil?” Benny prompts him gently.

Neil straightens up. “Thanks Commander Red!”

“You’re very welcome. Merry Christmas.” Red slings his duffel back over his shoulder. “So, you comin’ inside today or what, Blue? Much as I’d like to, I can’t lift this old girl off the ground without you. She don’t listen to me so well.”

Benny glances at his watch. “Yeah. Be there in a sec. Just want to say goodbye.”

“Alright. Chief, Neil, see you boys in June, huh? Take care.” And just like that, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, only another day at the office, Red disappears behind the doors of the astronauts’ quarters.

Benny watches him go, then turns back to Neil and B. This isn’t just hard. This is excruciating.

B surprises him by making the first move, brushes a doughnut crumb from the corner of Benny’s lips with the pad of his thumb and leans in for a slow kiss right on the mouth. “Stay safe,” says B, low and quiet. “Do good work. And come home to us soon.”

“I will.”

“I know you will.”

Benny looks at B. Looks for a good long while. B’s eyes say everything he can’t. There’s a great love there. B’s never had to speak it.

And then, a small sticky hand slides into Benny’s palm. “Daddy?”

Benny’s bum shoulder only complains a bit as he lifts Neil into his arms. “I’m gonna miss the stuffing outta you, Little Blue. You know that?” Neil’s still so small, though he’s creeping up on five years old. Benny wonders idly how much longer he’ll be able to pick up his boy.

Neil crushes his cheek against Benny’s shoulder. “Yeah.”

“Be good for Dada, okay? Love you to the moon and back.”

“Love you to Mars and back!”

“Aw, ya beat me.” Benny kisses Neil hard on the forehead, inhales the scent of sugar and soap. “Take care of Dada, Little,” he whispers into Neil’s hair. “Can you do that for me?” He feels Neil nod against his clavicle. Their secret pact.

With a final squeeze he sets Neil back down and grabs his own duffel bag. Surveys his boys. He gives them a wink, tries for a smile. His damned lip quivers.

“Love you. See you soon,” he says.

And inside he goes.


End file.
